Dallas Independent School DistrictThe RaftRecommended for Grade 1
Title/Author: The Raft by Jim LaMarche
Suggested Time to Spend:5 Days(Recommendation: two sessions per day, at least20 minutes per day)
Common Core grade-level ELA/LiteracyStandards: RL.1.1, RL.1.2, RL.1.3, RL.1.7; W.1.2, W.1.8; SL.1.1, SL.1.2, SL.1.4, SL.1.5, SL.1.6; L.2.1, L.2.2
Lesson Objective:
Students will identify the topic, details, and retell important facts through words and/or illustrations, of a story read aloud.
Students will observe changes in the main character over the course of the story.
Teacher Instructions
Before the Lesson
- Read the Big Ideas and Key Understandings and theSynopsis below. Please do not read this to the students. This is a description to help you prepare to teach the book and be clear about what you want your children to take away from the work.
Big Ideas/Key Understandings/Focusing Question
Nick’s experiences on the river lead to a connection to his grandmother and nature and bring him a sense of peace and belonging. The power of drawing his new surroundings draws him closer to the river and wild life.
Why does Nicky choose to draw a fawn on the raft, instead of any other animal he has encountered?
Synopsis
Nicky’s experience on the river
Nicky reluctantly spends the summer in the Wisconsin woods with his grandmother who is an artist. He is not thrilled with all
of the chores and country living but then the raft appears and changes everything. The raft works
a subtle magic, as he explores opening up the wonders all around him- the animals of the river and the woods, his Grandmother’s humor and wisdom, and his own talent as an artist. He appreciates things and people in a whole new light.
- Go to the last page of the lesson and review “What Makes ThisRead-Aloud Complex.” This was created for you as part of the lesson and will give you guidance about what the lesson writers saw as the sources of complexity or key access points for this book. You will of course evaluate text complexity with your own students in mind, and make adjustments to the lesson pacing and even the suggested activities and questions.
- Read the entire book, adding your own insights to the understandings identified. Also note the stopping points for the text-inspired questions and activities. Hint: you may want to copy the questions vocabulary words and activities over onto sticky notes so they can be stuck to the right pages for each day’s questions and vocabulary work.
- Consider pairing this series of lessons on The Raft with a text set to increase student knowledge and familiarity with the topic. A custom text set can be foundhere.Note: This is particularly supportive of ELL students.
Note to teachers of English Language Learners (ELLs): Read Aloud Project Lessons are designed for children who cannot read yet for themselves. They are highly interactive and have many scaffolds built into the brief daily lessons to support reading comprehension. Because of this, they are filled with scaffolds that are appropriate for English Language Learners who, by definition, are developing language and learning to read (English). This read aloud text includes complex features which offer many opportunities for learning, but at the same time includes supports and structures to make the text accessible to even the youngest students.
This lesson includes features that align to best practices for supporting English Language Learners. Some of the supports you may see built into this, and /or other Read Aloud Project lessons, assist non-native speakers in the following ways:
- These lessons include embedded vocabulary scaffolds that help students acquire new vocabulary in the context of reading. They feature multi-modal ways of learning new words, including prompts for where to use visual representations, the inclusion of student-friendly definitions, built-in opportunities to use newly acquired vocabulary through discussion or activities, and featured academic vocabulary for deeper study.
- These lessons also include embedded scaffolds to help students make meaning of the text itself. It calls out opportunities for paired or small group discussion, includes recommendations for ways in which visuals, videos, and/or graphic organizers could aid in understanding, provides a mix of questions (both factual and inferential) to guide students gradually toward deeper understanding, and offers recommendations for supplementary texts to build background knowledge supporting the content in the anchor text.
- These lessons feature embedded supports to aid students in developing their overall language and communication skills by featuring scaffolds such as sentence frames for discussion and written work (more guidance available here) as well as writing opportunities (and the inclusion of graphic organizers to scaffold the writing process). These supports help students develop and use newly acquired vocabulary and text-based content knowledge.
The Lesson – Questions, Activities, and Tasks
Questions/Activities/Vocabulary/Tasks / Expected Outcome or Response (for each)FIRST READING:
Read aloud the entire book with minimal interruptions. Stop to provide word meanings or clarify only when you know the majority of your students will be confused. / The goal here is for students to enjoy the book, both writing and pictures, and to experience it as a whole. This will give them some context and sense of completion before they dive into examining the parts of the book more carefully.
SECOND READING:
Use chart paper to list new or challenging vocabulary.
Reread the following pages and pose the questions.
Reread page 1
How does Nicky feel about going to his grandmother’s house for the summer? How do you know? / Nicky “complains,” there is no television, and no one to play with. “I felt tears starting again…”
Reread pages 3 & 4
How did the illustrations on pages 3 and 4 help you to understand how Nicky feels?
Activity:
Students create a five-part foldable.
Students will fold a sheet of 9 x 12 manila paper vertically and cut the top fold into 5 sections creating 5 flaps. (see picture)
At designated stopping points, students draw a picture on the outside flap to illustrate Nicky’s feelings and write describing words on the inside. Ensure to include the pictures from page one when students are creating their first entry.
On page 1 the dad says “she is not a normal kind of grandma?” What clues from pages 5 and 6 does the author give you to support that she is not a normal grandma? (chart responses) / Nicky – His eyes have tears, his face is long and serious, and he is hiding behind a tree. His appearance is that of a child not knowing what to expect.
-
-books are scattered everywhere
-sketches and stuffed fish
-charts of the river
-fishing poles are hanging on the wall
-a tackle box
-a snorkel and mask
Reread page 7
Why didn’t Nicky catch any fish? Use evidence from the text to support your answer.
-How did he feel about fishing? How do you know?
* Stop and add next illustration and description to the foldable. / Nicky didn’t catch any fish because he did not fish where his Grandma told him.
He didn’t like it, he said there are “no fish in the stupid river” and he was frustrated.
Challenging vocabulary: bobber, bait the hook, clutter, drop the line
Reread page 10
What caused Nicky to notice the raft?
What does the author compare to “finding presents under the Christmas tree”?
Why does Nicky’s Grandma encourage him to give fishing another try? / He heard “loud chirping and chattering” and saw a flock of birds moving towards him. Then the raft “bumped up against the dock.”
When he found the raft and moved all the leaves, he found that the raft had carvings and drawing of different animals, a bear, a fox, and a raccoon.
Grandma wanted Nicky to be on the dock so he would find the raft. (Have students give evidence from the story to support their answer.)
Challenging vocabulary: hover, ancient cave paintings
THIRD READING:
Explain that today you will continue to explore The Raft.
Read up to page 10 without stopping.
Continue adding words to the vocabulary chart.
Reread page 11
Why does Nicky ask his grandma for rope?
The author says that the animals are acting like they are friends with the raft. Use words from the text to explain why the author used the word “friend.” / To tie the raft to the dock.
-birds “swooped down to the raft”
-“a crane waded through the reeds to the raft”
-“a turtle swam up from the bottom of the river”
Normally animals do not approach people unless they know that they are going to be safe, like a friend.
Reread page 14
What leads Nicky to ask his Grandma “how did you know” about the raft?
What do you notice about Nicky’s expression on these pages?
Now look at his expression on page 2, how do they compare? What do you notice?
*Stop and add next illustration and description to the foldable: Nicky on the raft. / Grandma is not surprised to see Nicky playing on the raft and she shows up with a life jacket and a long pole, which are things you need for rafting.
Challenging vocabulary: hitch hike
On page 14, his face is peaceful and calm and he’s looking at all the animals around him.
On page 2 he looks really sad, his nose is red, it appears that he may have been crying.All he sees are buildings that he is leaving.
Reread page 15
How has Nicky’s attitude about being at Grandma’s changed? / Nicky rushes through his chores to race to the dock to see what animals will be there.
Reread page 17
Stop and chart vocabulary. / Challenging vocabulary: buck, snorkel
Reread page 19
Why does Nicky say, “I felt invisible”?
(Probe students’ understanding of the word as it is used in the sentence.)
*Stop and add next illustration and description to the foldable.
Teacher Note: Before the fourth reading create word sort cards for each small group of students. Use the words from the student-created vocabulary list. Also, have prepared blank word sort cards for students to write additional words selected during the fourth reading. / Nicky feels invisible because the heron lands on the raft, eats a crayfish, preensits feathers and then it flies away. The heron never pays attention to Nicky. (He felt like the heron didn’t even see him. It is very unusual for animals to come close to humans.)
Challenging vocabulary: heron, preened
FOURTH READ:
Continue adding words to the vocabulary chart.
Reread page 21
Why did Nicky say, “Grandma was right about the snorkel”? / Because when Nicky used them on and hung his head over the raft, he could see all sorts of things under the water such as the otters playing, chasing fish, chasing each other, and sometimes chasing their own tails. They played keep away with a stone and tug-of-war with a piece of rope.
Reread page 22
Stop and chart vocabulary. / Challenging vocabulary: otter, poled
Reread pages 23 and 24
Look back at your observations from pages 2 and 14, how do they compare with the illustrations on these pages? What do you notice about Nicky?
*Stop and add next illustration and description to the foldable: Nicky jumping off the raft to swim. / Teacher note: Nicky appears to have embraced his life on the river and his grandma. Animals are everywhere and do not seem to be afraid of “the people.”
Challenging vocabulary: cannon ball
Reread page 25
Stop and chart vocabulary. / Challenging vocabulary: fawn, doe
Reread page 28
What is Nicky’s reaction when he sees the fawn in trouble?
Would he have responded the same way at the beginning of the summer? / Nicky drops into the water, he whispers to the fawn that he will not hurt him and he prays that the raft will calm it. Nicky pulls the fawn out of the mud and takes him to its mother.
No. At the beginning of the summer, Nicky did not want to stay in the woods with the animals. He was from the city. He probably would have run from the fawn.
Challenging vocabulary: bank
Reread page 31
Why does Grandma say, “now you will always be part of the river”?
Why does Nicky’s refer to himself as a “river rat”?
Activity:
Working in small groups, students will engage in an open word sort followed by whole group discussion to explain their thinking.
(A word sort is a word study activity where children compare,
Contrast, and sort words according to specific features.Students organize sets of words into categories based on what they notice about the words.)
Teacher Note: Before the fourth reading create word sort cards for each small group of students. Use the words from the student created vocabulary list. Also, have prepared blank word sort cards for students to write additional words selected during the fourth reading. The words included can be feelings and/or actions. / Because Nicky has added his picture of his experience permanently to the raft.
Nicky now shares a connection to his Grandmother and her love for the river.
FIFTH READING:
Reread the story without interruptions.
FINAL DAY WITH THE BOOK - Culminating Task
- Students draw a picture of the animal Nicky drew directly on to the raft (i.e. a fawn)
- Students will respond in writing to this question:Why does Nicky choose to draw a fawn on the raft, instead of any other animal he has encountered?
- Possible Answers: That’s the animal that he got out of the mud. He drew the animal that he helped. The fawn was stuck.
- Tip: The writing response may pose a challenge for 1st grade students. Allow for inventive spelling and dictate for students who need assistance.
Vocabulary
These words merit less time and attention(They are concrete and easy to explain, or describe events/
processes/ideas/concepts/experiences that are familiar to your students ) / These words merit more time and attention
(They are abstract, have multiple meanings, and/or are a part
of a large family of words with related meanings. These words are likely to describe events, ideas, processes or experiences that most of your student will be unfamiliar with)
Page 7 - bobber – a small float placed on a fishing line to hold the hook at the desired depth
Page 7 – bait the hook- to place an insect or worm on a hook for fishing
Page 7 - drop the line – to toss the fishing line into the water
Page 10 - ancient cave paintings – very old paintings found in caves either carved or painted
Page 14 - hitchhike – catch a ride with somebody
Page 19-heron- a long-legged,long-necked,usuallylong-billedbird
Page 19 - preened – a bird straightening and cleaning its feathers with its beak
Page 22 – otter- a semiaquatic fish-eating mammal with an elongated body, dense fur, and webbed feet
Page 23 – cannon ball – a jump into water performed upright with the knees clasped to the chest / Page 7- clutter- a collection of things lying about in an untidy mass
Page 10 - hover- to remain in one place in the air
Page 17-buck- themaleofthedeer,antelope,rabbit,hare,sheep,orgoat
Page 17 - snorkel – a short curved tube for a swimmer to breathe through while keeping the face under water
Page 22- poled– propel (a boat) by pushing a pole against the bottom of a river, canal, or lake
Page 25 - fawn – a young deer
Page 25 - doe – thefemaleofthedeer,antelope,goat,rabbit,andcertainotheranimals
Page 28 - bank- theslopesbordering a river
Extension learning activities for this book and other useful resources
- Tape big brown pieces of butcher paper together to create a “raft.” Student draw and label pictures of Nicky’s experiences on the river. Students can use the visual to retell the story to a partner. Note: This is particularly supportive of English Language Learners.
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Dallas Independent School DistrictThe RaftRecommended for Grade 1
What Makes This Read-Aloud Complex?
- Quantitative Measure
Go to and enter the title of your read-aloud in the Quick Book Search in the upper right of home page. Most texts will have a Lexile measure in this database.